3 John: The Book That Never Names Me

At a Glance

Who wrote it: The elder, the same writer as 2 John, to a believer named Gaius. Tradition says my apostle John. Many scholars think it was a later teacher known as John the Elder.

When: Probably around 100.

Written for: Gaius, a friend of the elder, who had been welcoming traveling believers. The elder thanked him, and warned him about Diotrephes, a church leader who refused them.

What it remembers of me: Nothing. It is the only book in the New Testament that never mentions me by name. It speaks only of the Name (verse 7).

How close it stays to me: Close on welcoming strangers, and on who is first.

If you only read three chapters: It has one chapter, fourteen or fifteen verses depending on your Bible. By the count of words in Greek, it is the shortest book in the New Testament. Read it.

Words to Know

Gaius — a common Roman name. Several men called Gaius appear in the New Testament, and nobody knows which one, if any, this is.

Diotrephes — a church leader who refused to welcome the elder’s messengers. His name means nourished by Zeus.

The Name — a reverent way of speaking about me without saying my name, the way my people spoke of God as the Name.

The Book in Brief

The elder writes to his friend Gaius, whom he loves in truth. He prays that Gaius will prosper and be healthy. Traveling believers have told the elder how faithfully Gaius has welcomed them, though they were strangers. They set out for the sake of the Name, taking nothing from the Gentiles, so others ought to receive them.

The elder has written to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not accept what he says. Diotrephes speaks against him with wicked words, refuses to receive the traveling brothers, and throws out of the church those who want to. If the elder comes, he will call attention to what Diotrephes does.

He urges Gaius to imitate what is good, and says that Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone. He hopes to see Gaius soon and speak face to face, and he sends greetings from the friends.

It is a private note from the elder to a friend named Gaius. Gaius had been taking in traveling believers. A leader named Diotrephes had been turning them away. The elder is grateful to the first and angry at the second.

It does not mention my name once. And yet it may tell you more about what life inside my early churches was really like than many longer books.

A wish for good health

The letter opens with an ordinary greeting: Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be healthy, even as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

That was how letters began in that world. Many ancient letters found in the sands of Egypt open the same way, with a wish that the person reading is well.¹ It was the equivalent of I hope this finds you well.

In your time, some preachers have taken that one line and made it a promise that God wants every believer to be rich. They have built churches, private jets and television networks on it. It is a polite greeting at the top of a note to a friend. It promises nothing to anyone.

Go deeperWhat the prosperity verse says in Greek

Older English Bibles, including the King James Version, make this verse sound like the elder’s first wish for Gaius, as if he put health and wealth above everything else. The Greek does not say that. The phrase is peri pantōn, which means concerning all things or in all respects. Most modern translations drop the idea of ranking the wish first and read it as a hope that all may go well.²

The word the World English Bible translates prosper is euodousthai. It is built from the Greek words for good and road, and its first sense is to have a good journey. Paul uses it for his own travel plans: now at last I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you (Romans 1:10). The idea of a journey is never far from this little letter. Gaius’s guests were traveling believers, and the elder asks him to send them forward on their journey in a way worthy of God (3 John 6).

The other word, hygiainein, means to be healthy. It is related to the English word hygiene. Together the two words make an ordinary way to open a letter: I hope you are well, and that things are going well for you.

None of this makes the verse worthless. It is a kind thing to say to a friend. But in the twentieth century many preachers of what is called the prosperity gospel made it a key text.³ A greeting at the top of a letter cannot carry a promise to everyone who reads it. The elder wished a friend well. He did not tell the world that God pays believers in money.

Gaius, who opened his door

Beloved, you do a faithful work in whatever you accomplish for those who are brothers and strangers (3 John 5).

Gaius had welcomed traveling believers, people he did not know, and sent them on their way with what they needed. Because for the sake of the Name they went out, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we may be fellow workers for the truth (3 John 7–8).

That is how my message moved in those years. Not through buildings or budgets, but through people walking from town to town, and through other people who opened their doors and fed them. Every person who gave a stranger a bed was part of the work.

Diotrephes, who loved to be first

Then the trouble.

I wrote to the assembly, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, doesn’t accept what we say … neither does he himself receive the brothers, and those who would, he forbids and throws out of the assembly (3 John 9–10).

Diotrephes would not take in the elder’s messengers, and he threw out anyone in his congregation who did.

Notice the irony. In the letter just before this one, the elder told a congregation not to receive certain teachers into their houses. Here a man named Diotrephes is doing the same thing to the elder’s own people. We do not know what Diotrephes thought. Perhaps he believed the elder’s messengers were the dangerous ones. Every side in a church fight thinks it is protecting the truth.

The phrase the elder uses for him is one word in Greek: he loves to be first. I knew that kind of man. Some of them were my own friends. When James and John asked to sit at my right and my left, I told all twelve: Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be bondservant of all (Mark 10:44).

The first quarrel over power in a congregation was not the last. Read this little letter and you will recognize every church board you have ever heard about.

Go deeperWho was Diotrephes? Two ways to read him

We know Diotrephes only from a few lines written by his opponent. That is a thin base, and two readings of him have shaped the debate.

In 1897 the German scholar Adolf von Harnack saw a struggle for power. He took Diotrephes for an early example of a local leader of the kind who would soon be called a bishop. He ran his own church, and he would not let a traveling authority tell him whom to receive.⁴

In 1951 Ernst Käsemann turned the picture around. Perhaps Diotrephes was the careful churchman, guarding his flock from wandering teachers, and the elder was the one who stood outside the church’s order.⁵ It is a sharp thought, but the letter gives us only the elder’s side, and there is little to show which reading is right.

What is clear is that churches were still deciding who was in charge. Paul greeted the overseers and servants at Philippi (Philippians 1:1). Around 110, Ignatius of Antioch wrote as if every church should have one bishop, with elders and deacons around him.⁶ Diotrephes may have been caught in that change, for good or ill. The elder’s complaints against him are not about doctrine. They are about welcome. He loves to be first, he refuses the brothers, and he throws out those who receive them (3 John 9–10).

Do good

In the middle of the quarrel, the elder stops and says the thing that matters most.

Beloved, don’t imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil hasn’t seen God (3 John 11).

Not he who believes correctly. He who does good. After all the fighting about doctrine in the letters of John, that is where the last one lands.

The friends

The letter closes the same way as 2 John, with the elder saying he would rather talk in person than write with ink and pen. Then: Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name (3 John 14).

The friends. Not the members, not the brothers, not the saints. The friends. John’s gospel remembers me saying to my disciples on my last night, No longer do I call you servants … But I have called you friends (John 15:15).

My name is not in this letter. But that word is. Greet the friends by name. That is not a bad place for a book about me to end up.

Check It Yourself

Look up: 3 John 9–11, then Mark 10:42–44.

You will find: a church leader who loves to be first, and what I told my friends about being first.

Then read the whole letter. Notice that my name never appears in it.

The Short Version

• 3 John is the shortest book in the New Testament, a note from the elder to his friend Gaius.
• It is the only New Testament book that never names me.
• Its opening wish for prosperity and health was an ordinary letter greeting, not a promise of wealth.
• It praises Gaius for welcoming strangers and condemns Diotrephes, who loves to be first and threw people out.
• Its best line: He who does good is of God.